


The Lure of the Light

by Chthonia



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Banter, Dark Rey, F/M, First Kiss, Jedi Ben Solo, Lightsaber Battles, POV Rey (Star Wars), Reylo - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-22
Updated: 2018-02-22
Packaged: 2019-03-22 16:41:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13768242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chthonia/pseuds/Chthonia
Summary: Snoke failed to turn Ben to the dark side, but found a willing apprentice in Rey.  Years later, Rey has set herself against the resurgent Jedi Order - and one ridiculously infuriating Jedi in particular.





	The Lure of the Light

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Alethnya](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alethnya/gifts).



 

Rey watched from a sandstone ledge as Ben Solo entered the canyon. He looked utterly ridiculous in the tent-like brown cloak the Jedi favoured, lumbering his way across the rocks like some oversized Jawa.

But then, Ben Solo always looked ridiculous. As Rey had learned, that did not make him any less formidable in a fight.

He looked around with studied nonchalance, then gave an equally studied shrug and leaned against a large boulder, looking back towards the mouth of the canyon – and away from her. Which was doubly insulting, as she knew he knew _exactly_ where she was.

She stepped out of the shadows and called down. "Ben Solo! I didn't think you'd really come."

He turned, a smirk already plastered on his face, no doubt primed with some sarcastic quip. It died on his tongue as he caught sight of her. She lifted her chin as he gazed up, taking in her form-fitting black armour, her flame-red cloak, her imperious coil of hair, the infamous black saberstaff clipped to her belt.

"Lady Rey," he said, and she smirked at the breathiness in his voice before he recovered his usual infuriating drawl. "You called. Why wouldn't I come?"

"I didn't think you'd be foolish enough to actually come alone."

"Why not? You did."

"I'm always alone."

He tilted his head. "Well, maybe you'd have a few more friends if you toned down the whole 'evil mistress of the dark side' thing."

She tensed against his mockery. "Friends?" she spat. "I had some 'friends' once. They persuaded me to trust them, then they stole everything I had. Friendship is just another fantasy for the weak."

He just shook his head sadly, which only infuriated her further. She didn't want his _pity._

"Is that why you came?" she said. "To make fun of me?"

"No." He was suddenly serious. "I wanted to talk to you. About Snoke."

She scowled. "That's Supreme Leader Snoke to you."

"No," he said, with a bitter edge to his voice that she hadn't expected, "it's creepy decrepit murdering bastard Snoke to me." He ran his hand through his ridiculous floppy hair. "Look. Rey. I just wanted to say… I don't know what he's told you. Probably that only he can show you how to be strong. That you're nothing without him. But it's not true. He'll use you up and spit you out."

_…You come from the dirt, Rey. To the rest of the galaxy you're garbage. But not to me…_

She dug her nails into her palm. "Why would you even care?"

He looked her straight in the eye. "Because that's what he said to me. And I still have nightmares about what I might have done if I hadn't learned to block him out."

She laughed, the harsh sound of it echoing through the rocks. "You expect me to believe that Snoke tried to turn _you?_ That _Ben Solo_ has a dark side?"

"Everybody has a dark side. And also a light side."

"Spare me the pieties. Everything's been easy for you. You're just a pampered prince who's had everything handed to him on a plate! So you dabbled in the dark and found it was too strong for you - and now you think that means you can pretend to understand _my_ life?"

"I understand how strong you had to be to survive Jakku," he said. " _Before_ he found you."

She froze. "Jakku? What are you talking about?"

"The planet you grew up on? Your childhood scavenging wrecks? The AT-AT you used to sleep in?"

She could hardly breathe past the pain in her chest. She'd _buried_ that past. Him dragging it up – him even knowing about it – felt like the worst kind of violation.

"You were in my _home_?" She felt sick. She'd burned what she could, but those marks on the wall had been all too visible when she left. The idea of Ben Solo of all people running his fingers over them, feeling the hope and sadness she'd etched there and thinking that gave him some kind of window to her soul… She was going to make him pay for that.

"You should have stayed there," she sneered. "You can't get away from the Light on Jakku. You'd have loved the way it burns the life out of everything."

He smiled. "Is that why you chose this place? Because you thought I'd like it?" He gestured at the sand-blasted rocks surrounding them. "What's this really about, Rey?"

She unclipped her saberstaff and twirled it idly round her fingers. "I wanted to see how strong you really are."

He raised his eyebrows. "I didn't come here to hurt you."

"And that is what makes you weak."

He grinned. "Care to put that to the test?"

Oh, _yes._

She threw off her cloak and launched herself into the air, tucking her legs into her chest as she spun over his head. She thumbed on her saberstaff as her feet touched rock on the other side of the canyon.

He was already facing her, twirling the hand-me-down blue saber he was so ridiculously proud of. She feinted right then dove to the left, slashing at where his legs should have been if he hadn't swivelled out of the way. She rolled away just in time to avoid his saber's downwards slash.

Which didn't come.

She jumped to her feet. He was facing her again, legs bent in a defensive crouch. She leaped towards him, bringing her blade down with all the force she could muster. He swung his saber to deflect it and she used the momentum to whip hers around to hack at his legs. He cartwheeled over it as she spun her staff at his head. He blocked her, hard, the impact almost jolting her staff from her grip.

He stepped back, spinning his blade in a lazy circle.

It was exactly like when they'd attacked the Resistance base on Dantooine, when he'd been so focused on covering the retreat of his injured comrades he hadn't even tried to attack her. She'd thought it would be different here where she had him to herself.

"Coward!" she snarled. "All you ever do is run away!"

"As I said, I didn't come here to hurt you."

"And that is why you're going to _lose!_ "

"We'll see." He was still swinging his blade, around and around and around. "It all depends on what you want to win or lose."

She snorted. That was easy: winning was him sprawled in the dirt at her feet.

Her Master's approval was a rumbling purr in the back of her mind.

So she ran at him again, her blade whirling. Their sabers shrieked as he blocked her in a shower of sparks and pushed her away with a force that sent her spinning. She came back at him hard and fast, forcing him backwards blow by clashing blow as again and again his blade met even her fastest strike. And then he had nowhere to go and finally, _finally_ he followed up his block with a lunge that she had to jump back to counter, giving him space to roll away and resume his defensive stance.

Her chest was heaving. His skin was slicked with sweat.

She took a step towards him. And another. He didn't move. As if he was just another kriffing _rock._

She screamed out her frustration. " _Fight me_ , damn you!"

He just slowly shook his head. And powered down his saber.

A fraction of a second was all it would have taken for her to put her blade to his throat and force him to his knees. And the victory would have been utterly hollow.

"Why won't you fight me?" she spat. "Am I not good enough for you? Do you think you're too grand to spar with a girl from _Jakku?_ "

"No, Rey. That’s not what I think at all."

Her saber burned between them. 

She laughed. "You're playing a dangerous game, Jedi."

"You don't want to kill me."

"Don't I?" It sounded empty even to her. 

He clenched his fist, and her lightsaber twisted in her grasp. He reached forwards and turned it off. His hand was warm on hers.

 _"Rey,"_ he whispered, and she shivered despite the heat. Her saber fell from her fingers. He dropped his beside it.

He advanced on her, backing her up against the rock, and she really shouldn't have let him but the way he was looking at her made her _burn_. And oh, yes, Ben Solo _did_ have a dark side, and suddenly she very much wanted to meet it.

He seized her wrists and stretched her arms above her head, pinning her one-handed. She arched her back as he leaned over her.

She'd never been this close to him before. She hadn't realised just how big he was. And ungainly as he looked, to move the way he did there had to be pure muscle under that tunic.

He ran his thumb along her jawline, tilting her head up to meet his. And then his lips were on hers: so soft, so gentle, so at odds with the way his fingers tightened around her wrists. She thrust her tongue into his mouth, desperate to elicit a response that would break his control. He accepted the invasion, sliding his tongue along hers and making his own exploration, and it was sweet and slow and so very very thorough that for a moment there was nothing else in the galaxy that mattered.

And then she felt his mind nudge hers, and it was not a probe but an invitation she could not resist.

It was like tumbling into a deep mountain lake. She'd have expected a Jedi mind to be empty, lifeless, but instead she found herself floating as _awe_ and _guilt_ and _care_ and _concern_ swirled around her and deeper, stronger currents tugged at her from far below the surface.

When she came up for breath, his hands were heavy on her waist and hers had somehow buried themselves in his hair.

"You're worth so much more than he tells you," Ben murmured. "Never forget that."

She braced herself for her Master's angry hiss – but her mind was quiet. Calm. For the first time in forever, her thoughts were her own.

The silence was terrifying.

She stepped back. He just watched her, something revoltingly _earnest_ shining in his eyes. She slapped him.

"Was that supposed to impress me, _Jedi?_ " She hated the tremble in her voice. "If you want to fuck me, you'll have to do better than that."

She felt a savage satisfaction at the hurt in his eyes. He masked it quickly. 

"And if you want to pretend you don't care, you'll have to do better than _that._ "

And suddenly she couldn't stand to look at his stupid face for one second longer. She pulled her saber to her and spun away, leaping back up to her pillar, sprinting through the maze of rocks behind and flinging herself into her ship as Snoke's awareness coiled around her once more.

She knew who she was. She knew her strength lay in the dark side of the Force, whatever some ridiculous Jedi with strong hands and unfairly soft lips might try to tell her.

She rubbed the tears from her eyes.

She was going to _destroy_ him.


End file.
